Rome - Saturday

After breakfast, we had a quick walk along the Tiber over to the Villa Borghese via a new quicker route scoped out by Bryce. Long steps from the plaza to the edge of the park revealed the expansive size of the grounds. We were supposed to arrive at 10:30 for our 11 am entry time, but the grounds are much more extensive than we thought and we finally arrived at 10:50.

We toured room after room of ancient and Renaissance master with ceilings decorated in amazingly colorful murals. Everyone's favorite sculpture was Bernini's Rape of Proserpina where the male's fingers compressed the flesh of the Proserpina as if it were soft wax rather than hard marble.

As we exited, we took a more leisurely stroll through the gardens and grabbed a bite off one of the many lunch wagons. Peroni beers and panini and pizza, oh my! A large observation balloon floated overhead a ways off.


After our afternoon rest, we left again for more serious shopping. We sauntered a main shopping blvd and Ash found some great leather boots but Bryce came up empty on a reasonably priced football shirt. Tourists and Italians of all fashions walked by and we observed them all while stopping for an afternoon drink in a small cafe. Continuing on we passed a church with a black cassocked, red cross emblazoned priest hanging out at the entrance.

We ended up eating across the alley from the cafe of Friday night and had another excellent meal. I indulged in fettucine alfredo, but its sauce was not smothered in cream and butter but just enough butter for the parmesan to adhere to. Great! The only disruption as a horse drawn carriage that crashed into a menu sign board attempting to navigate the narrow 'street' and the singing of a young musician who played much better than he sang.

More gelati!!